'We've been here before': Trudeau says Canada will prioritize interests in potential U.S. trade renegotiation
CTV
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that if the next U.S. president re-opens trade negotiations for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Canada will prioritize its own interests.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that if the next U.S. president re-opens trade negotiations for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Canada will prioritize its own interests.
"We've done this before; we can do it again if we need to," Trudeau said at a news conference Friday. "We'll do it by putting Canadian interests first and foremost, as we have every other time."
The prime minister's comments follow a vow Thursday by Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump to reopen the free-trade agreement when it comes up for review in 2026, should he be elected this November.
"I will formally notify Mexico and Canada of my intention to invoke the six-year renegotiation provisions of the USMCA that I put in," Trump told the Detroit Economic Club. "It's coming due very soon. Oh, I'm going to have a lot of fun."
Trump said he planned to seek stronger protections against transshipment, or indirect routing of goods through multiple ports, in order to prevent other economies including China from introducing products to the United States through Mexico.
"They smuggle this stuff in. They don't pay anything. We're going to have very strong language on that," Trump said.
Instituted in 2020, USMCA was the tensely negotiated replacement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by Trump and Trudeau, as well as former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto.
